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April 23, 2008

G23: Angels 6, Red Sox 4

For his first career start on three days rest Lester's line (5-9-4-2-1, 81) was pretty much on par with his other starts -- too many baserunners and an Angel run in all but one of his five innings.

But the Red Sox slapped Garland around too. Lugo drove in Drew with a two-out single in the second, Cash began the third with a double and scored on Pedroia's sac fly, and Ortiz drilled a line-drive, two-run homer to right in the fifth. The game was tied 4-4 after five innings.

Hansen made his 2008 debut in the sixth. After two quick outs, he surrendered a solo home run to Kotchman. The Angels got an insurance run against Timlin in the ninth. The Red Sox failed to mount a rally against either Speier, Shields or Rodriguez in the last three innings. They had two men on with one out in the eighth, but Lugo grounded into a double play.

Hansen was sent back to Pawtucket after the game. Justin Masterson will make his major league debut when he starts tomorrow's afternoon game.

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Matsuzaka is the latest Sock to get the flu, so Jon Lester (5.06, 89 ERA+) gets the ball tonight.

Youkilis is out of the lineup tonight with a sore back.

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Craig Hansen (not Dusty Brown) was called up and David Pauley was sent back to Pawtucket. Hansen has been great this season: In eight appearances over 12.1 innings, he has allowed three hits, four walks and no runs. Hansen, in today's ProJo:

I've gone back to the way I pitched at St. John's. My mechanics have changed. ... I was able to get a lot of things done in spring training that I needed to. Pitching in different situations, getting myself in different situations and pitching my way through it. It helped out a lot.

-My friend made this hilarious animated GIF from last year's ALDS:http://i29.tinypic.com/aziau1.gif

-A photo gallery from my trip to Fenway on Sunday (I even titled it 'the Joy of Sox' - I assume I don't need to make any royalty payments)http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2130334&l=5b77d&id=1618376(You don't need to have facebook to be able to view the album)

Just saw the DiceK got scratched. This flu must be awfully nasty. Who gets the flu in April? Is this some bug they picked up in Japan? Could it take that long to surface? It just seems rather odd for all these grown men to be so sick in non-flu season. Could it be a Steinbrener act of sabotage?

ballhit to lcf and the wall, manny got the bounce, bobbled it a tad, fired to lugo in short lcf. he set and fired a one hopper to cash who tagged kotchman as he slid in. close play but clearly out. nice throw from sluggo.

I got it a couple years ago, and the framerate was about one frame very 10 seconds, even over broadband. (The audio was fine.) Have they improved the framerate now so that it's actually like watching live baseball? Or is it still just a marginal improvement over radio?

I just think church lady when he talks. I don't not like him. He's got good pipes and knows what he's talking about. He just needs radio baseball experience. And he's getting it. And it's only one game a night per week.

9casey - Actually I think the twins thought that they would be able to play the MFY's vs Sox angle and get Lester, Masterson, etc for Johan, but Theo wouldn't play that game and the MFY's balked also. I still think the Lester, ocoC and Lowrie was a better deal than what they got from the mets but we will have to see.

I don't recall the last start being that great. Just that our hitters were better than theirs. But weren't there a lot of walks and base runners? As proven already tonight, my memory isn't that great...even for events from two days ago.